“
“Recent

work suggests that a subcortical visual route may mediate rapid orienting towards faces in the visual periphery. We now demonstrate that this orienting bias towards faces shows a temporal-nasal visual field asymmetry of VE-821 mouse responses, supporting the view that it is mediated by extrageniculate pathways. Upright schematic face-like pattern elicited faster behavioural responses than inverted one in the temporal but not in the nasal hemifield of each eye. This effect occurred for saccades but not for manual responses. The presence of a similar asymmetry of the orienting bias in newborns supports the role of extrageniculate pathways in face detection in both neonates and adults. NeuroReport 20:1309-1312 (C) 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.”
“Segmentation of target odorants from background odorants is a fundamental computational requirement for the olfactory system and is thought LB-100 manufacturer to be behaviorally mediated by olfactory habituation memory. Data from our laboratory have shown that odor-specific adaptation in piriform neurons, mediated at least partially by synaptic adaptation between the olfactory bulb outputs and piriform cortex pyramidal cells, is highly odor specific, while that observed at the synaptic level is specific only to certain odor features. Behavioral data show

that odor habituation memory at short time constants corresponding to synaptic adaptation is also highly odor specific and is blocked by the same pharmacological agents as

synaptic adaptation. Using previously developed computational models of the olfactory system we show here how synaptic adaptation and potentiation interact to create the observed specificity of response adaptation. The model analyzes the mechanisms underlying the odor specificity of habituation, the dependence on functioning cholinergic modulation, and makes predictions about connectivity to and within the piriform neural network. Predictions made by the model for the role of cholinergic modulation are supported by behavioral results.”
“Short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) can be used to demonstrate experimentally induced or pathological changes in cortical excitability. By recording somatosensory-evoked potentials from rat to somatosensory cortex (S1), we can show that SAI further varies with the state of the cortex as deduced from the spectral composition of the electroencephalogram. SAI is strongly increased during episodes of enhanced delta-activity. The amplitude ratio of second/first somatosensory-evoked potential is significantly correlated to the ratio of theta/delta band power, but also depends on the power of higher-frequency bands. We conclude that evoked cortical inhibition is not a constant entity, but varies with the physiological state of the cortical network controlled by the brainstem arousal system. NeuroReport 20:1313-1318 (C) 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.